Abstract
Since Japanese Sign Language(JSL) is a human language, as clearly shown by previous studies, it should be possible for JSL to have a hierarchical structure that can be generated as a result of the application of syntactic operations. This paper deals with one such case, i.e. embedding a clause into a verb complement position, and is aimed at developing a solid basis for the syntactic analysis of JSL. In order to confirm that JSL actually has a complement structure, clauses selected by a verb of saying and thinking were compared with direct quotation clauses. The differences examined in this paper concern word order, the possibility of topicalization, and the possibility of WH-question formation. The basic word order of a sentence with a complement clause is SOV, whereas that with a direct quotation is OSV. A sentence with a complement clause allows topicalization and WH-question formation, while one with a direct quotation does not allow either of them. The difference in the grammatical acceptability of topicalization and WH-question formation suggests that a sentence with a complement clause can undergo syntactic operations such as Move (or Internal Merge), Whereas one with a direct quotation clause cannot
